1 Journalist Murdered in Japan since 1992

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2015

1992

Satoru Someya

freelance

September 6, 2003, in Tokyo, Japan

Locksmith Keizo Sakurai and two accomplices kidnapped and then murdered
freelance journalist Someya. On September 12, police found Someya's
body near a pier in Tokyo Bay. On April 27, 2004, Sakurai pleaded
guilty in the Tokyo District Court to murdering Someya in retribution
for Someya's reporting about Sakurai's alleged criminal activities,
according to Japanese press reports.

According to his confession, Sakurai, together with Yoshihiro Kumamoto
and Ryoichi Fujii, kidnapped Someya in Tokyo on September 6, 2003, and
held him in an apartment, where they tried to force him to apologize
for portraying Sakurai in a negative light in his book Kabukicho Underground.
When Someya refused to apologize, the three men put him on a boat,
stabbed him several times, and dumped his body in Tokyo Bay.

When police found Someya's body, it was wrapped in a weighted chain,
his hands were tied with rope, and he had eight stab wounds in his back
and two gashes in his head, according to police reports. Kumamoto and
Fujii also pleaded guilty in the case. Sakurai, Kumamoto, and Fujii
were formally charged with murder on January 16, 2004.

Someya, 38, reported for various magazines about organized crime in
Tokyo under the pen name Kuragaki Kashiwabara. In July 2003, he
published Kabukicho Underground,
a book about Chinese criminal groups operating in Kabukicho, Tokyo's
notorious red light district. Although Someya had praised Sakurai in a
2002 book, Sakurai believed that Someya's portrayal in Kabukicho Underground
of an unnamed locksmith involved in criminal activities referred to
him. When pleading guilty, Sakurai stated , "If I did not kill him, I
would still have been a victim of false accusations by the dirty writer
and would have suffered social ostracism. I could not help but kill
him," according to a report in the Japan Times.

In the postscript to Kabukicho Underground, Someya wrote that he might be in danger because of his investigations, according to press reports.